Surfboard pierces Honolulu driver's windshield

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In this image provided by Donard Sonoda, an unidentified man stops to assist driver Jerrin Ching (not seen) after a surfboard smashed through the front windshield of his car on a freeway in Honolulu, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Donard Sonoda)

HONOLULU (AP) — A man was driving along a Honolulu freeway over the weekend when a surfboard crashed through the windshield just inches from his face, leaving him with only scratches on his face and arms.

Jerrin Ching was driving on the H-1 freeway Sunday morning when the red surfboard came out of nowhere and pierced through the glass, he told KHON- TV

"I'm just thankful to be here," he said. "After it hit, I was like what just happened?"

Witnesses told police the surfboard fell off an overpass and bounced off a school bus. Ching said he was in the far left lane, driving east near the Punahou Street overpass, on his way to pick up a friend at the University of Hawaii, when "all of a sudden I see this red thing come out of nowhere and turns out it was a surfboard. And it just crashed through my windshield."

It's not known who the board belongs to, or where it came from. "Can you please claim your board, and I don't know, pay for the windshield or something?" he said. "Because you almost killed me."

Anyone with information about the surfboard's owner or where it came from is asked to contact Honolulu police.

The 2011 Honda Fit that Ching was driving belongs to his girlfriend, who was on Maui at the time.